Hit-and-run driver leads Scottsdale Police on chase through East Valley

A hit-and-run accident that began last night in Scottsdale eventually led Scottsdale Police and other Valley law-enforcement agencies on a chase that finally ended early in the morning in Mesa.

Scottsdale officers responded last night (10:41 p.m.) to a hit-and-run accident with injuries at Scottsdale and Thomas roads.

The suspect vehicle was reported to be a silver Dodge Ram pickup and it fled the scene after colliding with the victim’s vehicle.

This morning at 12:12 a.m., (90 minutes later) Scottsdale Police Department received another hit-and-run accident report with injuries at Miller and Murray roads. The same suspect pickup intentionally struck another vehicle and caused that vehicle to rollover and come to a rest on its side.

Scottsdale officers located the pickup and followed it to a car wash on the northeast corner of Scottsdale and McKellips. The pickup stopped in the parking lot. One Scottsdale officer exited his vehicle with his duty weapon drawn.

The suspect driver then accelerated and attempted to run down the officer. The officer fired his weapon multiple times striking the pickup and the male driver. The pickup fled from officers and a pursuit was initiated.

The suspect vehicle led police on a nine-minute pursuit that stretched into Mesa. The suspect vehicle crashed while attempting to navigate a turn at Desert Lane and Country Club in Mesa.

The male driver then exited the pickup and took off on foot. Officers quickly set up a perimeter. Officers from Scottsdale Police Department, Mesa Police Department, Department of Public Safety, and the Phoenix Police Department air unit assisted in the search for the suspect as he ran through a construction site and multiple residential backyards.

The suspect was arrested approximately 30 minutes later in a backyard of a home in the area of 400 W. Madero in Mesa. The suspect was transported to the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and is currently listed in critical but stable condition.

The pickup the suspect was driving was a stolen vehicle. It was also learned that DPS officers are investigating three separate hit-and-run accidents on Valley freeways involving the same stolen pickup during that time period.

The occupants of the vehicles involved in the Scottsdale accidents received minor injuries and no one was transported to the hospital. No officers were injured. The investigation is still ongoing and it involves five different crime scenes.

UPDATE: The suspect in the case is a 40-year-old white male. Police confirmed late Friday that he was struck three times in the upper torso by the officer’s bullets. The suspect remains in critical but stable condition at the hospital.

The silver Dodge Ram pickup was stolen out of Gilbert.

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